The Laser
by SRAM
Summary: Leonard gets hurt. Lenny Week story. Prompt: Injury


**A/N: This is for Lenny week. I know this is late, but better late than never right?**

 **The Laser**

Penny sat on the couch, she had only been up for an half hour, even though it was noon, and she was pampering herself with fresh pastries and coffee that Leonard had left for her before he left for work a couple of hours ago. Even though she had tried to keep in bed with her that Saturday morning, he had resisted her seduction and told her it was important, had to be done and he would be back to take her to dinner for her understanding. So Penny just took advantage of some extra sleep and was lounging around in her new cute sweat suit, relaxing and planning their dinner date together for later.

Penny was giggling to herself at a thought of what she was going to do tonight after Leonard wined and dined her, maybe danced a little and after the both of them had a few drinks. She was enjoying a comfortable afternoon, and having very naughty thoughts about later, so it actually was no surprise to her when she heard the knocking on her door, her luck was never that good.

Knock, knock, knock…..Penny

Knock, knock, knock…..Penny

Knock, knock, knock…..Penny

She was about to yell, 'Leonard's not her.' until she realized he didn't say Leonard so he did probably want her…'damm' she thought.

Opening the door Penny just glare at him and as he stared back with an innocence of a type only he could show, she sighed, "What do you want Sheldon." She knew the rest of her afternoon was ruined.

"Penny it is well after 11 AM on a weekend, so I don't know why you are mad at me." he scolded her.

"Did it ever consider to you that I would like to have some me time on a Saturday afternoon?" she looked at him and then realized the stupidity of that statement, Sheldon never considered anything but himself. "What do you want."

"I need you to drive me." he simply stated.

Penny rolled her eyes, "Sheldon why don't you have Amy drive you?"

"Amy is already there and she told me to have you drive me when you came." Sheldon told her like it was the simplest thing in the world to understand.

Penny stared at him in confusion. "Wait, let me get this thing straight, Amy said that I should bring you when I came. Came to what?"

"The hospital of course." Sheldon looked at her like she was stupid.

"Oh My God, Amy is in the hospital, why didn't you tell me sooner!" Penny exclaimed.

Sheldon shook his head, "No Amy is not in the hospital, Amy is just her same pale healthy self."

Penny calmed down. "So why is she at the hospital, did something happen to her mother?" Penny asked, hating she always had to play 20 questions with Sheldon to get the correct answer.

"No Amy's mother is fine, why would you think something is wrong with Amy's mother." Sheldon answered, completely ignoring the main question.

"Sheldon, I swear to God if you don't tell me why Amy is in the hospital and expecting me there, I will beat your ass and throw you down the stairs." Penny growled.

Sheldon took a step back. "Penny you really need to get control of your temper." Penny then glared and took a step towards him. "Okay, Amy went to hospital to see how Leonard is doing and she figured you would be there as soon as you found out he was hurt."

Penny's jaw dropped and she stared at Sheldon in disbelief, "WHAT!"

"Something happened this morning in Leonard's lab and he was taken to the hospital. I was called because I am still on his next of kin paperwork, and then I told Amy, so she said she is going and I should catch a ride with you." Sheldon calmly told her.

"WHAT! What happened to him, is he okay!" Penny was now yelling.

"I don't know, they just said to come over, because I might have to sign some paperwork for his surgery." Sheldon stated like it was a burden to him to have to do it.

"What the fuck Sheldon, how long ago did they call?" Penny was still yelling.

"A little after 10:30 AM, so after finishing the movie I was watching and giving you time to wake up, I came over and am now ready for you to take me there." Sheldon explained

Penny was besides herself in rage, as she now ran around her apartment to get shoes on, grab her purse, keys, and phone, yelling over her shoulder as she quickly accomplished her tasks. "You fucking bastard, after I make sure Leonard's is okay, I'm going to beat you with in an inch of your life." Needless to say, when Penny turned to go out the door, Sheldon was nowhere to be found.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Penny was sitting next to Leonard's bed waiting for him to wake up from his surgery, that the nurse and Amy made her understand was not life threatening as they both tried to calm her down from her sobbing. He had a deep wound on his thigh and it would make it difficult for him to walk the next week, but other than a scar he was going to be as good as new in a few weeks. She had calmed down a lot since she ran desperately into the hospital looking for Leonard and collapsing on her knees on the floor bawling when Amy told her he was in surgery. She now wished he would just wake up, she needed to see his big brown eyes telling her he was okay before her nerves could go back to something normal.

She was a little angry at him too, mad he had scared her to death by getting himself hurt, mad because he made it so there was nothing she could have done to help him and mad because he made her love him so much that the though of loosing him made her a complete wreck, not knowing what she would do if she lost him from her life. The tears were filling her eyes again as she looked at his unmoving form in the bed, even though she held his warm hand and could feel the pulse going through it, she was going to be a basket case again if he didn't wake up soon. She had just put her forehead against his arm, praying for him to be okay, when his hand squeezed hers and she almost jumped out of her skin.

"Leonard….Leonard are you awake." she said as she jumped from her seat next to his bed to lean over him, never letting go of his hand.

"Yeah, almost" a dry chuckle escaped his lips and a tiny smile formed, even though his eyes were still closed.

"Oh Sweetie," Penny leaned down and kissed his forehead which made his tiny smile larger and his eyes flutter open.

"Wow, I must have died, since I have my very own angel." he teased.

Penny pouted, "Listen Leonard Hofstadter, no more talk about dying or angels, get it mister."

Leonard drying chuckled again, close his eyes and nodded, "Got it." he whispered. Then he opened his eyes again, saying softly, "They told me to push the button if I woke up and no one was here."

"I'm here." Penny told him.

Leonard smiled, "Yes you are. But I think they meant a nurse or doctor."

"Oh, of course. Sweetie I got it." Penny then found the cord and pushed the button to summon the nurse.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The doctor put the bandage back over Leonard's wound, Penny feeling a little nauseous at the dried blood and all the stitches coming out of it. "Well Leonard, I must say, I do good work." the doctor teased getting a chuckle out of Leonard, the nurse and himself, while Penny sat their in horror at them all laughing about Leonard getting hurt.

The doctor then directed his next works to both Penny and Leonard, he knew from the nurses that Penny was Leonard's fiancée and had showed up at the hospital almost hysterical. "It has been a few hours since the surgery and the wound is not seeping, which is very good. The laser made a clean cut, so I don't think there will be an infection, but we will keep you tomorrow, for observation against infection, and then let you go the next day. You are probably going to have trouble walking for a week to ten days, because we had to sew those top muscles back together, the laser cut, so do you have someone to take care of you the next week?"

Leonard thought about Sheldon staying home from work and taking care of him, it made him shiver, but before he could say something her heard Penny speak up. "I will take care of him."

He looked at her in surprise, "But you have to work."

Penny just glared at him, daring him to object to what she about to say. "I'm not on probation at work anymore, so I have full benefits with vacation and sick days, so I will just use some of it." She looked at Leonard again, very seriously, "I will not allow any further discussion on the matter."

Leonard just nodded, looking at the doctor, "I guess I have someone to take care of me."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Penny stayed at the hospital the whole time Leonard was there and when he came home her work gave her all the time she needed, being the third highest salesperson did have its perks. She also basically moved in when Leonard got home, only going to her apartment to either get something for Leonard, getting a shower or obtaining fresh clothes, otherwise she was always at Leonard's side. It only took Penny a day or two to move herself completely in and even though Leonard loved having her there, his roommate was not so enthralled.

Sheldon only saw Penny when she was going to her apartment for something, heading to the bathroom or making something for Leonard to eat, which kept his exposure to her low but still too much as far as he was concerned. She was a swirling entropy that Sheldon could only handle in small doses and he counted the days till Leonard was better and Penny would be out, the two of them going back to their one night a week together that was agreed to with him. He was even thinking of counting this week of her being over as 10 nights so they Leonard would not be able to spend the night with her for the next two and a half month after this was over.

So it was after the third day that Leonard had been home, and after Penny made him eat breakfast, go to the bathroom and she cleaned him up, her seeming to like giving him sponge baths as much as he liked getting them from her. Penny had finally settled Leonard into a upright position, with his pillows, while she cuddled into his side, a position she found she really enjoyed, even craved. "Leonard, I know you were injured by a laser, but you never said how it happened."

She felt a small sigh come from him and then he spoke, "It was really pretty stupid when you think about it." he then chuckled

Penny sat up looking at him and Leonard was surprised how serious she looked, a look of concern and maybe anger in her expression. He decided to not joke about it because she didn't look amused, "You saw that very heavy thick table I use for experiments." Penny nodded and continued to stare at him, so he continued. "Well it weighs almost a ton, it is a precision table and it is calibrated every year so we can assure the top is perfectly level for experiments. With lasers, it is sort of a big deal." Penny nodded for him to continue.

"Well all the modules for the experiment are mounted to the table in a certain way to make sure they are level too. So that means attaching them with bolts that are torqued to specific values." he explained.

"Like engine parts on a truck or car." Penny stated hoping she was understanding everything right.

Leonard nodded, "So we set up the experiment, Friday morning and that afternoon my graduate students were suppose to mount everything…."

"Oh my God Leonard, they didn't do it right did they?" Penny now realized where this was going.

Leonard nodded, "They missed mounting the laser emitter completely, so the next day, when we did the calibration run, it wasn't properly aligned. Some times people don't torque down things properly, so the grad student went to shake it to see if it was loose, but since it wasn't mounted at all, the only thing she ended up doing was swinging the beam across the room and across my thigh. Since she did it so fast it only burnt through my first layer of muscle, and someone hit the emergency off switch as soon as they saw the beam swing, so there was minimal damage."

Penny stared at him wide eyed, "She could have killed you."

Leonard tried to brush her concern off, "No probably not, maybe just cut my leg…..legs off."

Penny's jaw dropped and she jumped out of the bed to stand in front of the window to stare out. She stayed like that, each second of silence in the room, making Leonard more worried about her, normally he would have walked up and put his arms around her but he was having difficulty moving without pain so he decided to try to speak to her, "Penny, I'm sorry, I didn't expect this to upset you."

Penny whipped around and glared at him, "You should be sorry!" she almost yelled, "What would I have done if you killed yourself. You would have left me alone, by myself, for the rest of my life. I love you Leonard, how could you leave me?" Tears now flowed freely down Penny's face.

This time it was Leonard's jaw that was dropped, as he watched his fiancée break down in front of him, she began to sob and then between her sobs he heard her say 'she was sorry'. Leonard was about to get up, the pain he was feeling for Penny now exceeded all physical pain to his leg, but he didn't have to, because she came to him, gently getting back in bed with him, then hugging him while she cried on his shoulder. Leonard tried to comfort her by rubbing her back, then a little after tried to talk to her, "I promise you honey, I will be more careful, I don't want to leave you alone."

Penny nodded, mumbling as she sniffled on, "I need you to take care of me when I'm like this….forever." Leonard just nodded telling her he loved her.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The evening of the tenth day Sheldon came happily back to the apartment, after Amy drove him from work, he knew Leonard went to the doctor today and it would be the day he would be taken off of bed rest and Penny would finally go home. Leonard had really gotten to shirk his responsibilities since he got hurt and Sheldon was going to have to get him back on track the next few days if he was ever going to be a proper minion again to him. So with a small smile on his face he entered his apartment only to have his good mood destroyed by seeing Leonard laying across the couch, on his uninjured side, with Penny in front of him being held tightly against him while they watched TV. "You both are in my spot."

Leonard and Penny looked up at him, not saying a thing and not moving, which aggravated Sheldon even more. He glared at them and Penny moved off the couch to help Leonard sit up, Leonard still a little uncomfortable and Penny obviously put out by Sheldon's demand, Sheldon had to keep from smiling at their obvious discomfort. However he was not through, "Now that Leonard is better, I want to bring this house back to normal. Penny you need to get your stuff and yourself back across the hall, while we clean up the germs of you camping trip over here the last 10 days. Also, you have used up your allotted sleep over's for the next three months so I don't expect to see you over here that much unless associated with a specific date with Leonard." Again Sheldon tried not to smirk because he knew Leonard would not be going on any dates for the next month while his injury healed.

Leonard was ready to object, the last 10 days had been the best of his life, he felt him and Penny had gotten closer over that time. Even thinking of her moving out, made him begin to miss her and he desperately tried to think of a way to keep her around. He didn't know he was wasting his time trying to figure something out, Penny already had a plan.

"Sheldon just because the doctor said Leonard was okay, doesn't mean I have released him." Sheldon and Leonard were now looking at Penny. Penny had also enjoyed her last ten days with Leonard, really enjoyed it, every day and every minute, she did not want to end it now either. Plus after the third day, Penny now felt being away from Leonard was just missed time with him, time she would regret missing if anything ever happened to him again and she didn't want to loose that time. So after ten days with him, he mind was made up, they needed to live together and she didn't give a damm where Sheldon ran off to, he was Amy's problem now.

Sheldon was confused, "What is that suppose to mean?"

Penny gave him an evil smile, "It means Nurse Penny, is still assigned to Dr Hofstadter, until Doctor Penny releases him and right now that may not be for a very long time, a very very long time." Penny then looked directly into Leonard's eyes.

"Well that is not happening here, I want to you moved out tonight." Sheldon set down the law, becoming very satisfied with himself.

Penny and Leonard still had their eyes locked. "There is nothing I can do about Sheldon throwing me out, Sweetie, I guess I'll just have to leave." Sheldon actually smiled at Penny's statement, at least she knew who was in control in apartment 4A.

Penny's next words wiped that smile off Sheldon's face, "So Sweetie, would you move in with me, so I can take care of you." Penny gave Leonard an expression with pleading eyes. Leonard just nodded to Penny while still captivated by her eyes, pleasantly stunned by her request.

Sheldon was now desperate, "You can't do that, Leonard tell her she can't do that."

Penny looked up at Sheldon, breaking the spell between Leonard and her, to both her and Leonard's disappointment. "I'm marrying Leonard and I want him to move in with me now. Deal with it Sheldon." her last words leaving now doubt it was going to happen.

Sheldon now was about to panic, "Leonard!"

Leonard smiled at Penny who smiled back, "I'm moving Sheldon, like Penny said deal with it."

Penny took off another week to take care of Leonard, them spending that week like the previous 10 days, enjoying every minute. Living together turned out to be better than Penny ever imagined and she quickly pushed to have their wedding, to make their living together more permanent. For that wedding, Penny wanted them to write each others vows and when Leonard read his for the first time their wedding day he barely made it to the end without crying.

 **I Leoanrd promise Penny to not take dangerous chances, and to make ever effort to make it home to her each night. I also promise to never trust a graduate student and always check their work in great detail, especially when anything is done around lasers. I further promise to discuss any actions I plan to take that could result in injury, with Penny first, and ask myself when something immediate comes up, what would Penny want me to do. I finally pledge my body and soul to my wife and agree to put neither in danger without her express permission, so help me God.**

 **The End**

 **A/N:** **Sorry this is so long, I have trouble doing short. Anyway I also wanted to make this about Leonard and Penny moving in together.**


End file.
